Conventional childhood development includes instruction of the child by the parent or guardian on use of a toilet. This phase of childhood development is commonly referred to a "toilet training" or "potty training" and during this time the child is encouraged to use a toilet rather than rely upon diapers or the like. Instruction on use of a toilet requires patience and perseverance on the part of the parent because children are highly individual on how they react to the training. It is therefore highly desirable to reduce the amount of time it takes to instruct small children on the proper use of a toilet.
In addition, a device that will make urination into the toilet enjoyable and interesting for the child is desirable. It is believed that attracting the child's attention to the toilet will encourage urination and therefore alleviate and/or avoid the stress normally associated during this period.
In view of the above, a variety of prior art devices have been developed to encourage children to use the toilet. For instance, visible targets are often placed within the toilet or affixed to the open face of the toilet. Other prior art devices comprise thin paper stock elements having indicia or other designs so that when placed on the surface of the toilet water will attract the child's attention. Still other devices comprise chairs adapted to emit music or sound upon successful use of the toilet. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,020,528 (Swanson Jr. et al.) discloses a potty chair having a receptacle portion provided with electrical contacts disposed in the bottom thereof and associated wiring and power means extending though the tubing and the chair. Urine collected within the receptacle causes a circuit to be completed thereby enabling a buzzer to sound, attracting the child's attention.
In a similar manner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,964 (Dean et al.) discloses a potty chair having conductive strips integral with the bottom of a receptacle and including associated circuitry enabling a voice message to be automatically played once the child relieves himself or herself into the device. Each of these prior art sound-generating devices are complicated and difficult to clean. More importantly, these devices cannot be retrofitted to a conventional potty chair. The circuitry and wiring of the prior art devices are incorporated within the chair itself thereby rendering the device cumbersome to clean and prone to failure.
A need has therefore existed within the art for a sound-generating toilet training device that attracts the attention of the child during use of the toilet and encourage further use in a proper manner while at the same time shortening the toilet training period and enabling a conventional potty chair to be rendered sound generating.